USC basketball coach Andy Enfield was quick to clarify a reporter's question Tuesday night.

"This wasn't a tune-up," he said.

No, his team just made it look that way.

Playing their first game since Dec. 8 due to the program's COVID-19-induced shutdown, the Trojans showed no rust whatsoever while going up by as many as 18 points in the first half and coasting to an 86-63 win over Santa Clara.

The Trojans (5-1) do have to quickly turn their focus to their first Pac-12 games, home Thursday vs. Colorado and Saturday vs. Utah, but Enfield thought it was more important that his team get on the court against a quality Santa Clara team (6-2) even if it limits prep time for the conference opener.

"Santa Clara's a very good basketball team, and they could certainly beat us, so we had to come out and perform tonight. We thought it was a little risky, but our players want to play basketball. We lost four games for shutdown," Enfield said. "...[Santa Clara] needed games and we needed games, so I'm glad it worked out. But this was not considered a tune-up game. This was a game we thought we had to really perform to win, and I think Santa Clara is going to have an excellent season this year. But as we prepare for Colorado and Utah coming in here, it's nice to get a real game like this. Even though we only have one day to prepare for Colorado, we thought it was more beneficial just to get back on the court and play a real game before Pac-12."

Center Evan Mobley led USC with 17 points and 7 rebounds, forward Isaiah Mobley had 13 points and 7 rebounds, guard Tahj Eaddy scored 13 points against his former team after playing the last two seasons for Santa Clara, forward Chevez Goodwin added 10 points and guard Drew Peterson chipped in 7 points and 9 assists.

USC was again without starting point guard Ethan Anderson, who continues to work through a back injury, but that didn't matter in this one.

The Trojans held Santa Clara to 37.7-percent shooting (just 2 of 17 from 3-point range) and remained in control throughout after building that comfortable early lead.

"We just wanted to get a game under our belt before conference and play hard," said forward Isaiah White, who added 9 points in the balanced team effort. "We didn't want to use the three weeks that we had off as an excuse. We just wanted to come out and play our hardest and get back to playing good basketball."

Perhaps the most encouraging sign was the play of Isaiah Mobley. He came in shooting just 41 percent from the field despite taking a majority of shots at close range. He just didn't look comfortable of confident through the early part of the season, but on Tuesday night he scored the first two baskets (on his first two shots) and went on to shoot 6 of 9 from the field and connected on his only 3-pointer.

"To be honest with you, I think for sure it's been more of a mental thing," he said afterward. "I feel like I've been playing pretty solid in practice leading up to this game, but these three weeks, we had some individual workouts we were allowed to do -- that allowed me to touch up on my skill, kind of get in better shape and just really appreciate the game and opportunities to play. When I came out today I just tried to have energy and assert myself and try to get myself going, and I felt that early getting a couple quick buckets. And seeing the ball go through the net kind of boosted my confidence and allowed me to keep it going throughout the game."

Said Enfield: "He's getting better. We need him to continue to improve as a player and hopefully we'll see more of these games."

After taking a 41-27 lead into halftime, USC scored the first 10 points of the second half on a dunk from White, a 3 from Isaiah Mobley, a White free throw and jumpers from Eaddy and Isaiah Mobley again to make it a 51-27 game. It never got closer than 17 points the rest of the way.

As Enfield noted, USC had two non-conference games cancelled and two Pac-12 games postponed during its extended COVID-19 layoff, and the Trojans really didn't return to practice until Monday.

So how did they pass the time and stay conditioned?

"During our quarantine, I tried to just stay flexible, stretch in the house, do some yoga, I tried to hydrate myself and really just spend time with my family -- my wife and my baby and just enjoy life while we were in there," White said. "I didn't want to make it a negative thing, I just wanted to get through it."

Said Isaiah Mobley: "I kind of did the same thing, actually. I picked up yoga and I've been doing it even up to today and it's been helping me a lot. I've been reading -- that's helped a lot too. And some of my coaching have been doing this Insanity program, which consists and pushups and calisthenics in the house, body weight stuff. I've been doing that, and playing some video games with the guys to keep some chemistry, some chatter going after being isolated from one another for a while. It was tough, but I'm glad it's over and we're here now."

As for Anderson, the starting point guard who hasn't played since Sept. 1 vs. BYU, Enfield said he remains day to day with his back injury and his status for the Pac-12 opener Thursday is uncertain.

"Ethan still has a slight back issue. I think by the end of this week we should know more and he should be back soon. He's still day to day," Enfield said. "Tomorrow he's probably not going to go through contact practice so we're not sure if we'll have him on Thursday or Saturday, but it's a day-to-day decision. I think he's improved tremendously, but I just don't have any more information."

Meanwhile, Tuesday night marked the debut of two Trojans newcomers -- freshman guard Reese Waters (who arrives well ahead of the rest of the 2021 recruiting class) and sophomore forward Josh Morgan (a transfer from Long Beach State who was initially supposed to sit out this season.)

Waters scored 5 quick points in 5 minutes, hitting his first two shots as a Trojan.

"Reese is getting acclimated to our system. He only had two days of practice. We didn't have a contact practice since two days before our last game -- the game scheduled at Stanford -- so Reese's first day was a walkthrough that Saturday before the Stanford game, and then the Stanford game got cancelled on Sunday and yesterday was the first time he's been able to go contact against our players and learn our plays," Enfield said. "So I was impressed with him tonight. We threw him in at the end of the game and he performed. He made a couple shots, he played good defense and he just needs to learn our system and have confidence that he can go in, whatever role he has for the remaining part of the season, just keep getting better every week."

As for Morgan, Enfield made it clear he only played the 6-foot-11 forward because the NCAA recently announced that this season wouldn't count against any player's eligibility.

Morgan had 1 rebound and 2 missed shots in 5 minutes off the bench.

"Josh's decision was to come here and redshirt, and the NCAA just ruled in the last few days that this season, all transfers are eligible and this season you will not lose a season of eligibility. So Josh will have three full seasons to play after this season. So that was the decision, just to get him some game experience," Enfield said. "He didn't expect to play and he was probably shocked when I told him to get in the game tonight. ...

"He's been very impressive in practice. He's more of a backup to injury here. Hopefully our guys will stay healthy, but we feel very confident we can put Josh in any situation. He was a terrific player last year at Long Beach and he's performed exceptionally well in practice. But we would not have played him the entire season if the NCAA had not changed that rule."